Sichuan Opera lasts for about ninety minutes and is nothing like Beijing (Peking) Opera.
Instead, it is fast moving & more like a circus perfromance without the animals except
for perhaps one white dove pulled out of a magician's hat.
As a renowned local opera mainly prevailing in Southwestern China's Sichuan, Yunnan,
and Guizhou provinces, Sichuan Opera is characterized by unique solos, refined acting,
rich percussion, and talented comedians, whose skills are unparalleled in the world. The
opera's application to be enlisted as an Intangible World Heritage is currently pending.
Sichuan Opera features vivid, humorous narration, singing, and acrobatics. It also boasts a
system of stylized movements and its acting is both exquisite and lively. Sichuan Opera
performances are always full of wit, humor, lively dialogues, and pronounced local flavors.
To portray special characters, the opera incorporates a series of stunts, including the famous
"face-changing." In Chinese opera, facial makeup is usually painted, but in Sichuan Opera,
the performer can change his or her facial makeup in the snap of a finger right on stage.
Comments
Hard to appreciate?
For a lot of foreigners, even if you speak Chinese, it is very difficult to follow. Any tips for overcoming that barrier?
Cultural Inferences of Sichuan Opera
The Sichuan Opera skits are mostly visual so it's not really a problem following
their meaning.It's a good chance to sip on some tea and eat peanuts or whatever
sort of seeds or nuts may be supplied anyhow.
On the other hand, Peking Opera is based a lot on historical events which makes it much more difficult for foreigners to follow. To my way of thinking, Peking Opera is more enjoyable in the latter rather than earlier acts because the performers are livelier and the music more uplifting.
I'm actually a member of the Sichuan Leisure Culture Studies group, & when that association inaugurated in early April 2007, I sat through a three hour symposium on "Leisure Culture and Harmonious Residence", all spoken in Chinese at the Shunxing Teashop in Chengdu.
This particular teashop is famous for staging the Sichuan Opera. After seeing the performance for what would have then been my third time at that venue, I was asked for any suggestions as to how it could be made more "foreigner-friendly" for spectators.
The two skits that came to mind were one man very theatrically rattling off the names of all the parks in Chengdu (in Chinese of course), & in another instance - all the counties of Sichuan were referred to. My suggestion was that the names be at least shown in Pinyin on screen behind the artiste on stage. Chengdu people are justifiably proud of their hometown, and like to talk big (boast). It's really just a bit of parochial chest-beating, so it is not really necessary to understand all the words.
The magician act, dancing girls, changing faces, fire breathing and shadow tricks do not need explanation in any language. As for the husband-training routine where the wife scolds the husband and then gets him to balance on a saw-bench as well as places a lit candle on a saucer on his head, the inference there is more cultural than verbal. It is said that the Chengdu women look after their men so well at home, & the men are so contented, that they will do anything the wife wants. The guy being punished just forgot how lucky he was.
One of my female colleagues (a married Chengdu-native university professor) recently told me the following joke, and it probably sums up the situation up well: " When a man marries, he loses his Bachelor ... but when a woman marries, she gains her Masters"
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